As we sit in this time of shelter-in- place, one thing rings true. I am prone to wander, Lord I feel it. My body wants to wander out of this house into the small city around me, past it into the hills and mountains and woods. Unable to do so, my mind wants to wander. It is aided in its journey by good books and movies streaming online. I have enjoyed watching the series “The Chosen” on VidAngel. It is not only my body and my mind which don’t want to sit idle at home, my spirit is also prone to wander.
My spirit remains concerned and begins to worry about all the “what if’s.” How long will these orders be extended for? How will the church celebrate Resurrection Sunday together? How is our church doing? I know there are sick and I know there are lonely and struggling and that was before all this extra stress. So I am prone to worry. I’m prone to self salvation and thinking of solutions to hold all things together amidst the variables I can’t begin to understand but don’t stop trying. Not all of the influence on my time is time well spent. I am prone to wasting time and energy. Prone to Fear. Prone to irritability. Prone to paranoid imaginings. Prone to wander, Lord I feel it. Prone to leave the God I love. Those are the words of the old hymn. They explain my situation so well. But this hymn also points to the solution.
Come Thou Fount
Come Thou fount of every blessing
Tune my heart to sing Thy grace
Streams of mercy, never ceasing
Call for songs of loudest praise
Teach me some melodious sonnet
Sung by flaming tongues above
Praise the mount, I’m fixed upon it
Mount of Thy unchanging love
Here I raise my Ebenezer
Here there by Thy help I come
And I hope by Thy good pleasure
Safely to arrive at home
Jesus sought me when a stranger
Wandering from the fold of God
He to rescue me from danger
Interposed His precious blood
Oh, to grace how great a debtor
Daily Im constrained to be
Let that grace now, like a fetter
Bind my wandering heart to Thee
Prone to wander, Lord I feel it
Prone to leave the God I love
Heres my heart, oh, take and seal it
Seal it for Thy courts above
Come Thou fount of every blessing
Tune my heart to sing Thy grace
Streams of mercy, never ceasing
Call for songs of loudest praise
Teach me some melodious sonnet
Sung by flaming tongues above
Praise the mount, Im fixed upon it
Mount of Thy unchanging love
I am so thankful that my hope is not found in my own faithfulness, but in the faithfulness of Jesus Christ. It is He who takes my heart and guards it and seals it so that my wandering heart might be bound to him.